Parking lamp



Nnv. 27 1923. 1,475,443 c. T. MASON PARKING LAMP Filed Dec. 8, 1921 mim Patented Nov. 27, 1923.

UNITED STATES 1,475,443 PATENT OFFICE.

CARL '1. MASON, 01 EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO TIFFANY MANUFAC- TUBING COMPANY, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

PARKING LAMP.

Application filed December 8, 1921.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CARI. T. lllasoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at East Oran e, in the county of Essex, State of New ersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Parking Lamp,

lamps of the automobile are provided with two sets of lamp bulbs, one set to give driving light and the other set for city driving and as a front signal when the car is parked. Each lamp of the first set is usually of relatively high candle power as compared with the lam s of the second set, that is to. say in the or er of about 21 C. P. to 4 C. P. In place of the 4 C. P. lamps it is sometimes customary to use a resistance in series with the main headlight bulbs and control this resistance by a switch so that when a small amount of light is needed or when the car is parked the dimming resistance may be cut in series with the lamp bulbs, cutting down the candle power. In either case the candle power furnished from the storage battery is in the neighborhood of 10 C. P. used at the front of the car and either a 2 or 4 C. P. tail lamp, makin a total of from 10 to 12 C. P. These small lamps usually consume about 1 watt per candle power, so that we have a total wattage consumption of from 10 to 12 watts and if the car is parked for a number of hours, the wattage used from the battery amounts to quite an appreciable item, particularly in cold weather when the capacity of the storage battery is greatly diminished; for example a storage battery at a temperature of 4 degrees above zero has only of its normal rated capacity at 70 degrees. Therefore, it will be seen that it is highly essential to keep down the parkin battery load as much as possible. It is, t erefore, one of the objects of my invention to furnish a parking lamp which will reduce the parking battery load to a minimum.

Another object of my invention is to pro- Serial No. 520,824.

vide a parking lamp that is very small and compact and neat in appearance and one that will be cheap to manufacture. These and other objects will be apparent after a study of this specification taken in connection with the annexed drawing, wherein- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of my parking lamp with a portion of the cover broken away, showing a part of the interior construction;

Fig. 2 is a back view of the lamp mounted on the mud guard of an automobile;

Fig. 3 IS a plan view of Fig. 1 but with the cover and bulb removed;

Fig. 4 1s a developed View of the lamp bulb socket;

Fig. 5 is a completed view of the socket after it has been formed up from Fig. 4;

D Fig. 6 is a diagram showing the electrical circuit through the lamp;

Fig. 7 1s a diagram showing the electrical circuit through a single contact lamp: while Fig. 8 is a vertical section throu h the base and socket which is adapted or the single contactlamp.

Referring now to the details wherein like numbers refer to corresponding parts in the various views, 1 is a base preferably of sheet metal having its ends 2 and 3 turned up. Instead of turning up the entire side, I prefer to throw up lugs 4, one of which is shown broken off at 5, in order to show the construction behind said lug 5. The lugs 4 and upturned ends 2 and 3 are used for guiding and carrying a'cover 6. The cover 6 has a white lens 7 supported in one end and a red lens.8 in the opposite end. These lens 7 and 8 are used for passing light from the lamp bulb 9, housed within the cover. The bulb 9 is carried in a onepiece socket 10, which is so formed and bent (as shown in Figs. 4 and 5) as to have a smaller diameter than the base of the lamp bulb, which together with the fact that the portion 11 is of considerable length, nearly one-half the diameter of the socket, results in a large spring action for gripping the lamp bulb which has the usual pins 12 to engage the notches 13 in the socket. The socket 10 is securely fastened to the base 1 by any suitable means, such as rivets 14 passing through the holes 15 in the socket. It will be noted that the lower portion of the socket 10 has a passage 16 therethrough and when the socket is mounted on the base 1, an insulating member 17 passes through the opening 16 over the bridge portion 18 of the socket 10 and the rivets 14 pass through both the insulator 17 and the bridge por tion 18 of the socket. The insulator 17 preferably abuts against the upturned edges 2 and 3, which thereby assist in positioning the insulator 17. Lamp bulb contacts 19 and. 20 are carried on the insulator 17, being fastened thereto by any suitable means such as rivets 21. In order to prevent the rivets 21 from touching the base 1, I preferably insert thereunder a relatively thin insulator 22. The springs 19 and 20 extend within the inner periphery of the socket 10 as more clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 3 and are adapted to engage with the two contacts of'the lamp bulb 9. One of the springs 20 has a portion 23 extending outwardly and upward for the purpose of engaging a switch member 2a that is pivotally mounted as by rivet 25 to one side of the cover. The switch lever 24 carries a button 26 which operates through a slot 27 in the cover.

When the cover 6 is in place over the lamp and socket it engages the base 1 which is adapted to be mounted through the medium of studs 29 on a mud guard 28 of an automobile; so that, when the switch lever 24 is thrown down to engage the portion of spring 20, a circuit is completed through the lamp as indicated in Fig. 6, one side of the battery B being grounded and the other brought to the spring contact 19 through the hole 31 in the base. The cover 6 is fastened to the base 1 by any suitable means, one such, being holes 29 in the flanges and indentations 30 in the cover 6.

As shown in Fig. 2, the parking lamp is mounted on the mud guard 28, so that the controlling switch is on the inside where it is not aptto be seen and tampered with, the red lens 8 pointing to the rear of the car and the white lens 7 pointing to the front end, thereby displaying a signal, when the switch is closed, in both directions. The lamp bulb 9 is preferably of 2 C. P. thereby consuming approximately 2 watts or about one-fifth. or one-sixth of the wattage consumption according to the old method of giving a parking signal.

In Fig. 8 I have shown the socket 10 mounted on the base 1 through the medium of the insulator 17 on which it rests, an extra insulator 32and bushings being used to insulate the socket 10 from the base 1. With this mounting the spring 19 passes to the central point of the socket in order to engage with the central contact of a sin gle contact lamp bulb; while the spring 20 engages directly with the bridge ortion 18 of the socket 10. The circuit t rough gamma the single contact lamp bulb used in connection with the arranent of Fig. 8 is diagrammatically shown in Fig. 7.

From the above descri tion it will be seen that the lamp 9- or the does not move, neither are there any moving Wires,

which features are present in many other skilled in the art that numerous changes and alterations may be made in the details for carrying out my invention, without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is: I

1. In a device of the class described, a substantially flat base, a socket carrying a lamp bulb fastened to said base, a cover attached directly to said base and enclosing. the socket and lamp, said cover carrying light lenses and a switch carried on the cover for controlling the'lamp circuit.

2. In a device of the class described, a substantially flat base, a one-piece socket, carrying a lamp bulb, fastened to the base, lamp contacts fastened to the base and independent of the socket, a cover carrying light lenses, fitting on said base and over the socket and bulb and a switch carried on the cover for controlling the lamp circuit.

3. In a device of the class described, a base, a lamp' socket, an insulator passing through the socket but over the bottom portion thereof, fastening means going through the insulator, socket and base, and a cover having light lenses for fitting over the socket onto the base.

4:. In a device of the class described, a base, a lamp socket, an insulator passing through the socket but over the bottom portion thereof, fastening means going through the insulator, socket and base, resilient members carried by said insulator and extending within the socket for contacting with the lamp bulb terminals, and a cover having light lenses for covering the lamp and socket.

5. In a device of the class described, a base,v a lamp socket. an insulator passing through the socket but over the bottom portion thereof, fastening means going through the insulator, socket and base, resilient members carried by said insulator and extending within the socket for contacting with the carrying a lamp bulb fastened to said base,-

lamp bu'lb contacts mounted on but insulated from said base, a cover having, light lenses for the socket and its lamp bulb fitting over the u turned edges of said base.

7. In a devlce of the class described, a

.base having upturned edges, a socket for carrying a lamp bulb fastened to said base, lamp bulb contacts mounted on but insulated from said base, a cover having light lenses for the socket and its lamp bulb fitting over and fastened to the upturned edges of said base and a switch lever carried by the cover for controlling the circuit through the lamp.

8. In a device of the class described, a base having upturned ends, a lamp socket, an insulator extending through the socket and positioned on the base between said upturned ends, holding means fastening the insulator, socket and base securely together, lamp bulb contacts on the insulator extending within and without the lamp socket, a cover having light lenses and a switch lever on the cover for contacting with one of said lamp contacts for opening and closing a circuit through the lamp.

9. In a device of the class described, a fiat metallic base, a one-piece lamp socket fastened rigidly to the base, an insulator on the base carrying a pair of contacts having ends extending within the socket to contact with said lamp, a cover fastened to said base and having l1ght lenses, and a switch lever carried by the cover for completing a circuit through the lamp.

10. In a device of the class described, a flat metallic base, a one-piece lamp socket fastened rigidly to said base, lamp contacts carried on the base but insulated therefrom and-independent of the socket, a light releasing cover for the socket and a switching said contacts to open and member on the cover for engagingh one of control t e lamp circuit.

11. In a device of the class described, a substantially flat metallic base, a one-piece metallic lamp socket fastened rigidly and directly to said base, a li ht disbursing cover fittin directly aroun the base and over the soc et, a pair of contacts associated with said socket but insulated therefrom and from said base, means for fastening a battery lead to one of said contacts and means carried by the cover for electrically connect-- ing the other contact to the base at will. 12. In a device of the class described, a base, an insulator, a one piece lamp socket fastened to the base through said insulator, a lamp contact carriedby the insulator but separate from the socket, a second lamp contact carried by the insulator but connected to said socket, a cover having light lenses therein'and a switch on the cover adapted to engage the second mentioned lamp contact for completing a circuit through a lamp .carried by the socket.

13. In a device of the. class described, a base, an insulator on the base, a socket car rying a lamp bulb fastened tothe base.

through the insulator, a battery contact spring on the insulator extendin' within the per ip cry of the socket, a groun ing contact .sprmg on the insulator fastened to the socket, a light disbursing cover for the socket and bulb, and a switch on the cover for engaging said grounding spring to complete a circuit through the lamp.

14. As an article of manufacture, a lamp socket normally consisting of a flat punching having a bridge portion with arms extendingtherefrom in opposite directions, said arms adapted to be rolled inwardly toward the bridge portion on the same side thereof, said bridge portion then being bent at right angles adjacent said rolled portions, thereby forming a socket for the reception of a lamp.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature.

CARL T. MASON. 

